Wolverhampton Wanderers' manager Mick McCarthy insists there is no place for regrets after his side missed out on the last remaining Championship play-off spot, writes Lisa Smith.

And he promised supporters he would press on with the nucleus of his side to ensure they made the leap into the Premier League at the first attempt next season.

If anything, McCarthy believes it would have been a greater travesty to go up this season with his young squad and then find themselves floundering and coming straight back down into the Championship within one season.

McCarthy said: "I don't regret anything because I have done everything I possibly could. I don't go home and regret things. If I could have done anything different or better or changed something, then I would have done. In everyone else's mind, there will be something I should have done but that is the nature of a manager's life."

Wolves are certain to see players come and go over the summer and McCarthy claims he already has ideas on those he will build the team around for the 2008-9 campaign. He said: "There will be changes and players will come and go. In my own head, I have a nucleus of players who will be staying and who I won't have a problem with.

"I think a lot of the side are new to this level. Some of the games we have played recently have been the biggest games of their careers. I would have liked to have seen Matty Jarvis for a whole season. Everyone talks about Michael Kightly as a superstar, yet 18 months ago he came from Grays Athletic.

"George Elokobi has come from Colchester United and the game against West Bromwich Albion was the biggest he has ever played in.

"Wayne Hennessey, wonderful 'keeper that he is, has had just one season at it. I don't think they will be going home thinking 'if only we had done this'. They will be coming back hungry for more. It will be the same as me."

While Wolves' supporters will be smarting that Albion are once again up amongst football's elite next season. McCarthy believes it will not be plain sailing.

"All those that go up risk doing themselves serious damage by spending too much money and then they come back down and can't keep the players they have bought. Then, they have to bail out with all their players," he said.

"Charlton have come down this season and haven't done anything and Sheffield United, too. Watford have got into the play-offs by just a couple of goals. They have hardly run away with it. Who is to say whoever is coming down will do the same?

"You have to ask if any of the teams that go up are going to be good enough to stay up? We would have all loved the opportunity, but I can't look for a silver-lining on a cloud at the moment by saying 'perhaps'.

"I know [chairman] Steve Morgan said the crime at this club would not be missing out on promotion, it would be going up and then coming straight back down. Will we be better next season? I think we will because the players are so young. "

The former Republic of Ireland, Sunder-land and Millwall boss added: "I had a great chairman at Millwall who said 'the season finishes and you think the lads coming back will be more experienced and a year better off and battle-hardened. The reality is that they came back older and more cynical'.

"I don't think that is the case with these players because they are young. They will come back desperate to do better and hungry for more. I wonder if the players I mentioned earlier are all ready to go into the Premier League and are Premier League players?

"It is interesting to see who the teams are at the bottom of the Premier League at the moment. There are people looking at my team and I am sure there are one or two sniffing around some of my players, but I believe they have to continue to develop their careers here and it is a fabulous place to do it."